Ghpstage
Deity
Seems as no-one has picked this out yet.JunglistGuy said:
Universal Suffrage only affects fully matured towns, and not the earlier levels of cottage improvements.
Until you have matured towns universal suffrage provides nothing other than an extremely wasteful form of rushing production. Building the pyramids to run this civic actively hurts you by preventing you from using the much more useful (during the early game) Representation and Hereditary Rule civics while also throwing away enough hammers to build 5 settlers for no benefit whatsoever!
AT infantry do have a niche use in being the earliest unit that can get a decent aircraft intercept rate making them a counter to annoying airships, but they generally aren't particularly useful, especially at this level.
Units, naval in particular have roles, deciding on a definitive best would be difficult though the only ones that can actually really bring a nation down are galleys, galleons, transports, sub marines and missile cruisers.
The stealth destroyer is the most advanced naval unit available.
However, with its extreme tech requirements, high cost, unimpressive strength and lack of useful support abilities (seeing subs/collateral damage/cargo/bombard they are one of the least useful naval units in my eyes, I never even consider using them in single player. I haven't played MP much, but despite some potential uses for attacking undefended transports/carriers, blockading and pillaging I don't see them being used much there either.
Attack subs and normal subs have different roles and really shouldn't be compared on a like to like basis.
Attack subs have a similar role to stealth destroyers, that is opportunistically attacking surface ships but as they can also see other submarines and have a large bonus against regular subs, which are one of the most threatening units in the ocean, they do have a more important role. They also have the ability to carry a spy/great person, not something I use but some people may find it useful. The downsides are that it does require quite a lot of tech (much less than stealth destroyers though!), has strict resource requirements, can be seen by destroyers and are, like the stealth destroyer very specialised.
Regular subs however are another story, their most important role is carrying tactical nukes. At the level you currently play you probably won't find them to be much use, tactical nukes are absurdly cost effective stack killers that are awesome for crushing much larger and stronger civs at the highest difficulties.
Fighters on board carriers can strike cities, units and improvements inland and perform recon. Carriers themselves allow for an unlimited number of fighters to be based in a single tile and the instant transport of fighters to and from any city or carrier you own. As a result they can not only recon and attack large areas of land and sea, but used en masse they can overwhelm pretty much any land based air defence locally. Used well they are pretty potent.
As for 'best' naval unit, naval warfare is mostly about getting troops to enemy cities or stopping them getting to yours, so the most significant unit is probably the galleon (or better yet the Dutch UU version!) which opens up seriously the prospect of invading other continents. Nod goes to its bigger brother the transport too.
